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As part of the development process for DRES and the individual user-level research required by the Government Digital Service framework, we have been engaging over the last four months during the discovery and prototyping stages of the project with a range of users, including the model flyer community. Around 25% of our audience has been individual model flyers, recognising that the view of this community is of importance to us for ensuring continued safe model flying under an increasingly complex airspace landscape.

It would be nice to have details of the users that they have been dealing with. I suspect they are, at least in part, referring to the awful survey and workshops that Sparck ran late last year. There are reports from the workshops on some of the forums.

so we are jumped on from a great height- the only legal, safety minded branch of model flyers legislated and controlled by government while the rogue drone flyers are ignored. Shades of the pistol shooting fraternity in Britain being destroyed while the crims with guns simply carry on. This whole white elephant will do NOTHING to prevent events like Gatwick, but those of us who have carried on our hobby for many years safely and legally have to carry the can- and the cost- for the cowboys. £16.50 is not much, but it will not be that next year, when they count the money up. If it actually could make a difference, I would applaud it, but it wont. What it will do is deter young persons from becoming aeromodelers in the first place, while the droneists will be the new CB revolutionaries. Many people I have spoken to say they will leave the hobby.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the forthcoming Drone Registration Scheme on aero modellers flying of small air vehicles that are not drones.

The answer from Nusrat Ghani MP (DfT):

Quote

The Drone Operator Registration Scheme will apply from November 2019 and is one of several new measures to address the safety and security challenges that unmanned aircraft pose. It will help law enforcement agencies to tackle the misuse of such aircraft effectively, alongside new Police powers, which will be introduced in the upcoming Drones Bill.

In response to the Department’s 2018 consultation on unmanned aircraft, the Government stated that any alternative approach for model flyers must be achieved without imposing undue burden on the state and the taxpayer, whilst also being efficient and enforceable, without compromising the integrity of the policy. Any blanket exemption from registration and competency tests for aero modellers, or having the associations register their members into the registration scheme, will not meet these criteria.

Hands up if you were part of the "25% of the audience" ... given that this affects Model Flyers ... who were the other 75% of people testing the system (and how would they know whether it was relevant to us or not?).

Just received a reply from the CAA from my email to them a week or so ago. They suggest contacting the DfT about the wider issues beyond cost. So I've just done that

1.Cost of Dres to recreational drone flyers. The CAA are currently indicating the cost to operators will be £16.50 per annum initially based on 170,000 registrations. The best estimates of likely registrations from the recreational drone flyer community is 50,000. As the CAA say they have to recover the cost of Dres it follows that in subsequent years the cost must rise substantially. Please comment.2. Education. The proposed education scheme seems to suggest that on successfully completing this requirement the individual is 'competent' This might be interpreted as they are now qualified to fly a drone. Nothing could be further from the truth. The nearest aviation example I can find is the Air Law exam that PPL students must take before they are allowed to fly solo.. However they will have received many hours of practical flying training before taking the exam.It must be stressed that the education scheme only acquaints the drone flyer with a knowledge of air law that applies to drone flying. Please comment.3. Annual re-registration and education. The scheme is proposing that registration and education along with its associated costs will recur on an annual basis. Few other similar activities involve such a regular re registration. not only that few if any other country is taking such a position Please justify this decision.4. Age restriction. It is curious that ownership of a drone has an age qualification of 18 years. Few other equipment based activities such as archery, small bore rifle shooting, angling have such a high restriction. Please justify this decision.

Here is the CAA's reply to my email, I guess others will have received the same.

Thank you for your correspondence on the UK’s drone registration and education system (DRES).

The CAA understands that this is an important issue for the drone and model flying community.

CAA consultation on DRES charge

The current CAA consultation specifically covers the proposed charge for the operator registration scheme. If you wish your views on this aspect to be taken into account in the final decision on the level of the charge, then please complete the short consultation at https://consultations.caa.co.uk/finance/drone-registration.

Government policy for drone registration and education

Plans for a UK drone registration and education scheme stem from the UK Government’s consultation in 2018 on the future UK policy framework for drones. In its 7th January 2019 response to this consultation, the Government made clear that the UK mandated drone registration and education scheme requirements would be implemented by the end of November 2019.

In its response, it also said that model aircraft would fall within the scope of DRES and that there would be no blanket exemptions, adding that any specific requirements for model aircraft could not be funded by taxpayers or other drone operators. The Government then amended the law, the Air Navigation Order (ANO), to bring the scheme into effect at the end of November 2019. The EASA regulation on drones, which contains some specific provisions for model aircraft associations, is expected to be published in final form shortly and will start to come into force sometime during 2020. Once that regulation is in force in the UK we would then expect to review and, where necessary, align the UK approach with that EASA regulation. At present, however, we are working towards a DRES system that aligns with UK law and policy.

CAA’s implementation of the UK drone registration and education scheme

Within the UK legal and policy framework, the Government has tasked the CAA with successfully implementing the new drone registration and education service by October 2019.

There are a few key points that have been made in the correspondence sent to us that we would like to clarify:

Age limits: The Government’s current policy is that drone and model aircraft operators will have to be at least 18 years of age, but there is currently no age prohibition for remote pilots, providing they meet the required level of competence and operate under the responsibility of an operator;Model aircraft associations or clubs as operators: model aircraft associations or clubs would have the option of registering as the operator with their members acting as remote pilots. In this scenario, the association or club would need to meet any legal requirements and take accountability and responsibility for the actions of their members, and members would need to abide by the remote pilot requirements.As part of the development process for DRES and the individual user-level research required by the Government Digital Service framework, we have been engaging over the last four months during the discovery and prototyping stages of the project with a range of users, including the model flyer community. Around 25% of our audience has been individual model flyers, recognising that the view of this community is of importance to us for ensuring continued safe model flying under an increasingly complex airspace landscape.

We will continue to engage with model aircraft and drone representative groups going forwards as we finalise the DRES system and aim to keep all those affected up-to-date on progress and the requirements of the new scheme.

Seriously, you summed up my thoughts about the majority of forums that I frequent and have since not posted any further on them....sick of folk repeating answers to questions already posted, keyboard warriors, those that think they know better than anyone else....the list goes on but I wont bore....

Hiya fellas,Moved over from the RCM&E site because I got sick of the dictatorial moderation and the fondness for closing threads, also got sick of the continual whining and bickering, cliquey posters, sycophants self appointed sages, Alpha males and posters with nothing really to contribute other than having to add their valuable opinion.

I look forward to contributing and enjoying this forum having shed the shackles of "The friendly forum"!

Well done on taking the higher ground and not bringing any of it over here